24 Struggles Of Online Dating That Are All Too Real

It's been 20 years since Match.com first launched , which means that there have been two whole decades of brave men and women putting their love lives in the hands of the Internet.

Online dating revolutionized the way people connect with each other, opening up new avenues for finding romantic love -- and of course, bringing with it a whole host of new #DatingFails.

Here are 24 struggles of online dating that are old as Internet time.

1. Anyone can take one great profile picture -- especially if said picture is 5+ years old.

2. You have to face the fact that you may be the only person on Earth who doesn't find "running together" to be romantic.

3. Whether you're Latina, Asian or have a lot of tattoos, your identity is ripe for being openly fetishized online.

4. You will virtually run into at least 15 coworkers while swiping through Tinder -- and probably accidentally match with at least one of them. Awwwwwkward.

5. You never know if that hot 30-year-old is actually 22 -- or if that silver fox 52-year-old is actually 68.

6. You also never know whether the person you're meeting up with will have a voice that gives you the same feeling as listening to nails scraping against a chalkboard.

7. Half of the time you end up spending two months exchanging surface-level messages with someone, and then never actually meeting up...

8. ... Or you do meet up, but it's been so long that you have forgotten all those surface-level details and have to repeat the conversations in person.

9. GROUP. PHOTOS. But for real... which one is the person you're supposed to be dating?

10. You match with someone and excitedly realize you have a mutual friend -- and that it's your ex. Fail.

11. You find someone who you're a 99 percent match with online, and have everything from favorite bands to how you want to raise your kids in common, and then have 0 percent chemistry in real life.

12. A photo can say a thousand words but a strategically lit, filtered and angled photo often ends up saying just one word: "uh-oh."

13. Dick talk and/or unsolicited dick pics: For gay men, you're often disappointed by the exaggeration. For women who sleep with men you're like, "Why the f**k are you talking about your dick?" Everyone loses.

14. That moment when you tell someone you write about feminism and/or queer culture on the Internet and then you never hear from him again. Or is that only us?

15. If you're a woman who dates men, sometimes you don't know anything about them from their profile other than they like travel, sports, hot sauce and dogs.

16. Online trolls. Apparently, they love OKCupid and Tinder just as much as they love Twitter.

17. You spend 15 minutes going down a Google rabbit hole typing in a person's first name, college and current city, only to LinkedIn-stalk 12 strangers who aren't the person you've been messaging with.

18. Every time you go on a first date you have a slight fear that you will be kidnapped and/or chopped into little pieces, prompting you to designate a friend to alert law enforcement should you fail to text after three hours.

19. People who include their Instagram profiles in their Tinder bios to get more followers. Best to wait for at least the third date for any virtual "friending."

20. Does "I like a girl/guy who keeps active" mean you like someone who's healthy or is that just a more socially-acceptable code for "thin"?

21. You go on a date with someone who's a bit older than you and halfway through you realize they don't get your slang. The struggle is real, y'all.

22. You agree to go on a date with someone a week ahead of time, but then the day rolls around and you don't feel like going but you feel like you can't say "Sorry, I changed my mind and actually wanna watch Netflix tonight."

23. It's impossible to tell whether the child in your potential date's photo is his or her kid, a relative or just a baby he or she co-opted to make people go "Awww."

24. When you realize the bar your date suggested meeting at is a 45-minute commute from your home.

But there is one upside that remains even through all the trolls, mediocrity and inconvenience.

You might actually find someone you like... or love.